THEWORSTPERSONINTHEWORLD

(apologies to Keith Olbermann)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Bachmann: It’s no secret that our nation may very well be experiencing the hand of judgment. It’s no secret that we all are concerned that our nation may be in a time of decline. If that is in fact so, what is the answer? The answer is what we are doing here today: humbling ourselves before an almighty God, crying out to an almighty God, saying not of ourselves but you, would you save us oh God? We repent of our sins, we turn away from them, we seek you, we seek your ways. That’s something that we’re doing today, that we did on the National Day of Prayer, it’s something that we have chosen to do as well on another landmark day later this year on September 11. Our nation has seen judgment not once but twice on September 11. That’s why we’re going to have ‘9/11 Pray’ on that day. Is there anything better that we can do on that day rather than to humble ourselves and to pray to an almighty God?

It’s not secret that I should probably just go ahead and rename this the “Michele Bachmann Award,” eh?….

Evidently, Bachmann never got the memo. You know, the one that says America is not in fact a Christian nation, but a secular one with a Christian majority. To her way of thinking, God holds those who think like her in the highest esteem, and is looking for an excuse to smite everyone else. Yep, that’s right; God only loves crazy White bigots who hold themselves above those not “enlightened” enough to share Bachmann’s special blend of crazy and bigotry- the belief that they and they alone are the Chosen Ones. Because only she and her acolytes grasp the truth of the Word of God: that both 9.11 and Benghazi were God’s judgment.

Welcome to today’s “WTF??” moment.

There’s something truly offensive about a public servant who truly believes that God speaks to her (without the benefit of medication) and that only she and those who believe as she does truly communicate with the Almighty. For someone who’s taken an oath to serve her country, it’s disturbingly dismissive and redolent of intense religious bigotry. For Bachmann, God’s blessings only rain down upon a very small portion of the American populace- those who are as narrow-minded, fear-driven, self-righteous, and self-superior as she is. In Bachmann’s world view, there IS no separation of Church and State- because the Church IS the State and vice-versa. Never mind the fact that it’s a system that hasn’t worked so well in places like Iran and Afghanistan. We’re America; and any right-thinking American patriot understands that we can do dominionist theocracy and inflexible religious bigotry better than ANYONE.

This is the environment in which Christian bigots like Bachmann thrive. It’s McCarthyism with a cross.

It’s one thing to claim the imprimatur of the Almighty as justification for your complete dismissal of and disregard for those not “enlightened” enough to share your flavor of Christianity. It’s quite another to feel justified in publicly opining that both Benghazi AND 9.11 were God’s judgment against a country that has gone astray, with prostrating ourselves before Him in prayer and supplication being our only option.

There are few things more despicable and reprehensible than a politician ready, willing, and able to impose their religious beliefs on the entire American populace. Though 80% of Americans self-identify as “Christian,” most don’t buy into Bachmann’s Old Testament cosmology. Bachmann is actually representative of a very small but vocal group of uber-Christian “patriots” who would impose a dominionist theocracy upon America, a country built on the separation of Church and State. It’s not exactly a stretch to refer to Bachmann and those she speaks for as the “American Taliban,” for they would impose a regime upon this country that’s every bit as ignorant, fear-based, and corrupt as the Afghani Taliban. It’s the very definition of unreasonable and absolutist totalitarianism.

America by nature isn’t a bigoted and intolerant country. We have our issues, but most Americans recognize the melting pot nature of our homeland, and that it’s home to people of many creeds and faiths. No one belief system should have primacy, nor should it be allowed to control the levers of political power. That is a recipe for autocratic despotism, and while Bachmann and her ilk fear “tyrannical government,” what they have in mind is evidently acceptable…because they’ll be in control. You see, when you sit at the top of the pyramid, it’s no longer “tyranny;” it’s “enlightened, Christ-centric rule.” What they see as a Biblical republic would in fact be an exercise theocratic fascism.

Except that those who determine what’s “Christ-like” would do away with the rule of law and replace it with the Bible- or at least their own narrow, self-interested interpretation of it.

There’s nothing enlighted about that, nor does it have anything to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’ about replacing the “tyranny” they fear- which exists only in their feverish, overheated imaginations- with a coercive and cruel reign of terror. It’s not about God’s passing “judgment” on America through Benghazi and 9/11; it’s about Bachmann and her ilk using these tragedies for the benefit of their own sick, twisted personal and political agendas, none of which have anything to do with God. It’s about political power and who gets to wield it. What Michele Bachmann wants is little more than a return to the time and methods of the Crusades, when those who refused to toe the accepted theological/ideological line were branded as “heretics” and killed so they’d no longer pose a threat.